Gisèle Bündchen, whose face promotes products from Disney to Nivea and Aquascutum, is the world’s top-earning model, according to Forbes.
   The magazine’s latest table of what it calls the top 15—there are actually 16 models—puts Bündchen’s earnings over the last 12 months at US$35 million, more than double that of Heidi Klum, in second place at US$14 million.
   It said that Bündchen’s US$5 million Victoria’s Secret contract, which ended in December 2007, was included in the totals. But even without it, she still comes up top, thanks to the value of some 20 contracts.
   Klum was helped by her television ventures and campaigns for Diet Coke, Jordache, Mouawad, Volkswagen and Schwarzkopf.
   In third place was Kate Moss (US$7·5 million), followed by Adriana Lima (US$7 million) and Doutzen Krœs ($6 million).
   Krœs managed to get into the top five after scoring a Victoria’s Secret contract on top of her Calvin Klein and L’Oréal deals.
   In sixth place was Karolina Kurkova (US$5 million), with Natalia Vodianova (US$4·8 million), Carolyn Murphy (US$4·5 million), Daria Werbowy (US$3·8 million) and Miranda Kerr (US$3·5 million) rounding out the top 10.
   Isabeli Fontana (US$3 million) appears on the list for the first time at number 11; Gemma Ward (US$3 million), the second Australian on the list, ties for 11th; and Selita Ebanks (US$2·7 million) is 13th.
   Valentina Zelyaeva (US$2·3 million), Estée Lauder face Hilary Rhoda (US$2 million) and Liya Kebede (US$1·5 million) take positions 14 to 16.

How reliable are these readers’ polls? The British edition of Glamour (May 2008) puts Kate Moss at number one for Britain’s best dressed woman, with Agyness Deyn not even making it into the top 50. It’s a switch from earlier polls, which had been putting Moss lower during the last four months.
   Britney Spears was named worst dressed, with Jodie Marsh and Amy Winehouse making it on to the same list.
   Following Moss were Sienna Miller, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Bilson, Jennifer Aniston, Alexa Chung, Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Alba, Keira Knightley and Victoria Beckham.
   Glamour attributed Moss’s success to her Topshop range and her willingness to be experimental with her clothing.
   A month ago, the UK edition of Tatler, owned by the same group as Glamour, put Deyn at number one, and Moss at number two, though the list looks very different.
   Between the two polls, Moss, Chung and Knightley appear.

Reports are coming from Agence France Presse and other wire services that Naomi Campbell has been banned from flying British Airways after her arrest last week.
   The services are quoting The Sun and The Daily Mirror.
   Campbell, 37, was arrested last week at Heathrow Airport after a dispute over her luggage at the infamous Terminal 5. She allegedly spat at a police officer.
   She has not been charged and was released on bail.
   British Airways told the Press Association, ‘We do not comment in detail about matters relating to individual passengers.
   ‘All incidents of abusive or disruptive behaviour towards fellow passengers or staff are taken extremely seriously and will not be tolerated.
   ‘We deal with cases on an individual basis and take appropriate action where necessary.’

It’s not the new Knight Rider (which returns on NBC this year), but Max, a talking, black 1964 Volkswagen Käfer—Beetle to Anglophones—which will front a campaign for Volkswagen of America launching today called Das Auto.
   Max will interview, in a talk show setting, supermodel Heidi Klum, TV personality David Hasselhoff—who should have no problems conversing with a black car—actor and director Leonard Nimoy, NASA astronaut Richard Searfoss, music-sharing innovator Shawn Fanning, and former basketball coach Bob Knight.
   Volkswagen wants to stress not its premium image as it has done of late, but its impact on popular culture through the message, ‘It’s what the people want,’ tying in to the origins of its name.
   The campaign breaks on TV, online, and in print, as well as on social media channels.
   Tim Ellis, vice-president of marketing at Volkswagen of America, says, ‘Max personifies Volkswagen’s past, present and vision for the future. Through him, we will reconnect with American consumers and let them know how Volkswagen understands and responds to what the people want.’
   The American public will first meet Max in a series of teaser ads in major market daily newspapers that will seed him and introduce his knowledge of what the people want. To complement the print ads, an interactive polling program will simultaneously roll out on vw.com. A collection of 30-second television spots will follow throughout April.

Vogue’s April 2008 cover with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and Gisèle Bündchen has been branded by some as being racist. As noted by the Plain Dealer over in Cleveland, Ohio:

LeBron shares the April cover of Vogue magazine with supermodel Gisele Bundchen. It’s been noted by some that his open-mouthed screaming face and the way he is cradling a blond woman in his left hand has racial overtones in its resemblance to an old movie poster of King Kong and captive Fay Wray. Vogue says it chose the photo because it’s “expressive, fun and upbeat.”

   Once I got over the bad typography, I had to wonder if this cover furthers stereotypes. Being a minority, I personally didn’t make the connection that Margaret Bernstein and Sarah Crump reported on above. If I imagined the races switched, I also didn’t get much of a reaction—except to note that it would have been unusual for Vogue to feature a woman of colour on its cover, let alone a man of any colour.
   However, I wondered: would a black man who isn’t a basketball player have made it? Or one who isn’t dressed as such?
   I don’t think it’s necessarily the pose, but whether there is a stereotype at play here. While Mr James has his own line of clothes—which he is modelling in the cover photograph—would a cover showing him in more conservative attire have been chosen?
   One blogger gave other examples, and reacted to the photograph:

A tuxedoed LeBron James out on the town with a stylish Gisele photo shoot would do. A Lebron on a couch with a magazine full of him and Gisele on the same couch with a magazine full of her; signifiers that they are man and woman at the top of their professions photo shoot would do. Or, the two in full nightclub gear with him watching her trying to dribble in the low light of an empty Quicken Arena. The possibilities are endless.
   And yet LeBron James allowed himself to be captured interminably not as the King James of his profession and rising player in the business world, but as a human King Kong, The Great Nigger whose fame is inextricably tied to how proficiently he puts a leather ball through an iron hoop.

   Others rebutted:

Calling it a modern-day interpretation of King Kong and Fay Wray, Feministe website writer Ali Eteraz referred to the image by Annie Leibovitz as “King James Turned Into King Kong.” She also said the cover “fulfills every racist stereotype in the world: primal screaming, white-girl carrying, black beast.”
   Are they seeing something that has escaped the rest of us? It’s the “Shape Issue,” remember? The contrast of the 6-foot-9 James and 5-foot-11 Bundchen seems like nothing more than an innocent pop culture poke at celebrity. Do we really need to read more into it?
   As for the comparison to poor Fay Wray, does anyone see Bundchen looking remotely stressed in this shot?

   James is the third man to appear on a cover of Vogue (after Richard Gere and George Clooney), and the publisher has defended its choice because it is an issue devoted to size and shape. From the Associated Press:

“Nobody says more about fashion size and shape than Gisele and LeBron,” Vogue spokesman Patrick O’Connell said. “LeBron is an amazing star and athlete that has crossed over into a cultural phenomena.”

   To me (being neither black nor white), the King Kong connection, isn’t obvious—but the idea of “the black American good only on the basketball court” seems to be cemented here. Sad, in a year where Americans could be voting in their first black president.
   Whatever the case, Vogue seems to have benefited hugely from the publicity, from the blogosphere and sports’ fans who might never have commented on the magazine.

Supermodel Kate Moss has lost her top spot as Tatler’s best-dressed woman, it was reported today. Agyness Deyn, British Model of the Year, has taken her place.
   The magazine stated, ‘Whether she’s sipping chai at the Russian Tea Rooms in Primrose Hill or kicking back at Henry Holland’s studio, she’s fash-fabulous … Rockin.’
   Moss manages a second placing in the British magazine, which still paid tribute to her strong influence on fashion trends.
   Gorky-born Natalia Vodianova (pictured at left) comes in third. While most of the list are models, with celebrities such as Keira Knightley present, Samantha Cameron, wife of the Leader of the Opposition, also makes it (at number nine). Hampshire-raised English–Chinese TV presenter Alexa Chung rounds off the top 10.
   The full list follows:

1. Agyness Deyn
2. Kate Moss
3. Natalia Vodianova
4. Keira Knightley
5. Stella Tennant
6. Anouck Lepère
7. Lynn de Rothschild
8. Kirsty Bertarelli
9. Samantha Cameron
10. Alexa Chung

Katoucha Niane, the model who graced Yves Saint Laurent’s campaigns in the late 1980s, has been confirmed as the body recovered Thursday in the Seine. She had been reported missing on February 1. French police officers are treating her death as accidental: it was believed that she returned to her houseboat drunk and fell in the river.
   A post mortem showed that Niane, 47, had drowned ‘due to rapid submersion without any trace of violence’.
   Niane was a campaigner against female genital mutilation, which she herself had suffered aged nine in her native Guinea.
   Prior to the YSL campaign, Niane had modelled for Lanvin, Thierry Mugler, Christian Lacroix and Paco Rabanne.—Lucire staff

Brazilian supermodel Gisèle Bündchen may have scored a two-year, $2·5 million contract to be the face of Max Factor, according to E! News.
   The entertainment news service quotes a source close to the deal, saying that the campaign will break in the summer.
   Bündchen is the highest-earning model in the world at the moment, making in excess of $30 million per annum, according to Forbes.
   There is no news on whether Bündchen will supplement or replace present Max Factor signature face Carmen Electra.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell says the fashion industry is more racist than ever.
   Campbell hit out at the lack of black faces on magazine covers and catwalks.
   She told The London Paper: ‘Women of colour are not a trend. That’s the bottom line. It’s a pity that people don’t always appreciate black beauty. In some instances, black models are being sidelined by major modelling agencies.’
   She continued: ‘Fashion needs to go back to the way it used to be when wonderful designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace and Azzedine Alaïa just had a great line-up of beautiful women—white, black, Chinese, Hispanic.’
   Campbell, 37, admitted that her supermodel pals helped her career by taking a stand against racism.
   ‘Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington would go to big designers and say, “If you don’t pick Naomi to be in your show, then I don’t want to be in it”,’ she recalled.
   ‘The only reason I got the cover of French Vogue was because Yves Saint Laurent called up and told them he’d pull his ads if they didn’t.’
   The Streatham-born star spoke out after her former boss admitted racism was still rife in the industry.
   Carole White, head of the Premier model agency and who represented Campbell for 17 years, said: ‘A black girl has to be perfect to get work. The bookers are told, “Don’t send any ethnic girls.”
   ‘I showed a picture of a new black girl to an agent in Milan, and he actually recoiled. He said, “We don’t have black girls in Milan. It’s impossible.”’—Press Association

Lucire editor Laura Ming-Wong, Miss New Zealand 2007 Laural Barrett and I will be among the judges of the StarNow 2008 Australian Model Search. 
   Each time I judge a competition, I get asked what I am looking for.
   The requirements of a fashion magazine for models include talent that can look different each time. We don’t want a Derek Zoolander with a Blue Steel look. We want a model who, depending on angle, poses, mood and just her “look” can convey anything from cool to sultry, playful to dramatic.
   I don’t think conventional beauty always works with models, either. This idea has been helped by shows such as America’s Next Top Model: all the girls on that are stunning but very quickly, Tyra and her judges whittle the contestants down, often starting with the least flexible and most conventional of them.
   When judging the Cadbury Dream Model Search last year, I really liked how my fellow judges were conscious of family and education commitments, as I was. This is important, too: the maturity of the entrant and whether she has the focus that will enable her to succeed both in her education and in her career.
   Modelling, despite the mischief Kate Moss might get up to, is not fun and games. This is work, and usually very hard work. Discipline is key to the job.
   We look forward to seeing what entrants are signing up the competition and if it sounds like you, surf to www.starnow.com.au/modelsearch.